Having been doing the mom and volunteer thing almost exclusively for the previous twenty years, a head shot is not something that has seemed a worthwhile investment of time or money up to now. Is that a thing people have lying around?

But now, I needed a head shot. ASAP, please.

The need for a head shot at a moment’s notice seems emblematic of the level of preparedness I currently possess for the things that are happening around here.

In case you are not my FB or IRL (in real life) friend who has already heard my announcement, I recently signed a contract with Abingdon Press to publish my devotional book in February 2018! I KNOW, RIGHT??? In fact, considering you are a person who on occasion comes here to read my words, I feel bad for not having shared this news with you earlier since this would not be happening without you. This is no reflection of my love for you and I promise not to keep things from you in the future.

After 11 years of playing around with blogging, I gathered enough words, met with a couple of publishers, and now find myself with a grown-up book contract. And requests for head shots, marketing plans, video introductions, catchy quotables for memes and an author Q & A. To say that I feel a bit in over my head would be an understatement. Overwhelmed, but deeply grateful and extremely excited! God is good!

(The final manuscript is due on March 15, so I would appreciate your prayers for these next few weeks, praying friends.)

Along with the guidance I am getting from the lovely people at Abingdon Press, I also decided I need some professional help with my website. Along with writing projects and upcoming retreats, I recently started a life coaching practice that I want to tell people about here, so it is time for a major overhaul by someone who knows what they are doing.

So faithful friends, stay tuned! Things will be quiet around here for a bit, but I will be coming back with a brand new website soon. It will have buttons to click on, places to be on my mailing list and all manner of official writer, speaker, life coach things!

In the meantime, please enjoy my very grown up and professional looking head shot. This required a stylist to dress me, a hair and makeup professional to groom me, and a very patient photographer who works miracles with some kind of photo editing software. It takes a village!

As I sit here today pondering the highs and lows of 2016 for me, my loved ones and our country, I am grateful for the presence of this online community in my life. This blog has continued to collect new readers from all over the world and I am grateful for every single one of your nearly 13,000 visits. Over 1,100 of you have agreed to an email notification when I post and 545 of you are part of our Facebook community. I am humbled you keep showing up and joining me here.

I published 57 posts this year and many of you were gracious enough to share your favorites with your friends. Because of your generosity and the way this community continues to gather new friends, I hope to have some extremely exciting news to share with you in the new year about an opportunity to share my writing more widely. Stay tuned!

As has been my tradition, I thought I would take a moment on this final day of 2016 to look back over some of our favorite “conversations” here at Grace Notes.

Top 5 Posts of 2016

1.How to Be a (Mostly) Awesome College Mom Just in time for my older daughter’s graduation from college this past May, I shared a few thoughts on the essential tools I believe all college parents need. Apparently, my somewhat irreverent observations resonated with a few of you, as this was my most widely read and shared post this year. This post was also my first picked up by Huffington Post and shared from that larger platform.

2. Our Journey Back: My Teenage Daughter’s Battle with Anxiety I am not the only writer in our family. My younger daughter, a brilliant and fearless writer (who I hope to be more like when I grow up,) began talking about her battle with anxiety in her writing this year. Because of her commitment to encourage others, she allowed me to tell our story here as well. Our journey back to health resonated with many of you and both Brooke and I have had the privilege of continuing the conversation offline with families who were comforted to discover they were not alone in their struggles. Continue reading →

Like this:

We call our fourteen-year-old Bichon by the name Dobby. If you are not a Harry Potter fan, Dobby is the name of one of the beloved house elves in the popular book series about the wizard world. He is one of the heroes in the story. We got our Dobby when my girls were five and seven, near the beginning of our family’s love affair with these books. We started reading the books out loud to them when they were new readers, but they quickly graduated to exploring the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione on their own. When the last several volumes were released, we began ordering two copies because our family of four could not possibly bear to take turns with only one book.

Bad mom alert: I may or may not have suggested to one of my girls that they could skip their homework to read Harry Potter so that I could get my hands on one of our copies more quickly. Luckily, the books were usually released in the summer.

To further convince you of our Harry Potter obsession devotion, last year over the girls’ Christmas break from college, we re-watched all eight Harry Potter movies as a family. In case you are wondering, 19 hours and 40 minutes is how long it takes to complete this movie marathon and no, we did not do it in one sitting.

When Universal Studios in Orlando opened the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in 2010, our family was understandably intrigued. We vowed to go, but life had gotten particularly busy with high school activities and dreams of college by then, so we never made it.

Until last weekend.

So why am I telling you all of this? Don’t worry, gentle reader. Although I know you love me, I promise I am not going to subject you to a slideshow of our family vacation (ok, maybe a few photos but only enough to demonstrate my point. You are welcome.)

I am thinking about the word delight today and I wanted to paint a picture for you. As I began to write this post, I sat quietly and tried to conjure up an image of the word delight and this is the what came to mind. Continue reading →

Have you been watching the news lately? Or spending any time on Facebook?

UGH! I know, right?

Although I have strong opinions, I am not going to go into a rant here. You’re welcome. Just promise me, one way or another, you will go vote on November 8th. Even if you don’t love either of the candidates, voting is a privilege and responsibility. Pick one. If you can’t decide, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to tell you which one you should choose. #NeverTrump

IN THE MEANTIME, how do we survive these next three weeks until election day? In this world full of cynical, angry, LOUD voices, how do we maintain our equilibrium and choose the joy, peace and love of Jesus instead?

I am not advocating a policy of disengagement or denial. Rose colored glasses are not the answer either. Our country is facing serious issues and we all need to get involved, get informed and get to the polls. Yet, if you are like me, you may be spending more time than you would care to admit getting pulled into an emotional tailspin by the deteriorating rhetoric of angry finger pointing. My blood pressure cannot survive another three weeks of this level of collective rage and despair.

This past Sunday, my pastor Tom began a new sermon series about gratitude, arguably one of my favorite topics. Choosing gratitude, without being too dramatic, has likely saved my life in many ways, so I am a big fan. At the end of the sermon, he invited us to take a 21 day gratitude challenge.

Every day, for the next 21 days, we agreed to intentionally and thoughtfully express appreciation to another human being. Whether in person, by email or with an old fashioned note of thanks, the challenge is to notice the loveliness of the human beings God has placed in our lives and TELL THEM about it!

Cynicism, pessimism and self-righteous anger, unfortunate by products of recent current events, don’t look good on me and frankly cramp my style. I much prefer the joy-filled Jesus girl aesthetic Continue reading →

I just scared my elderly dog. Thank goodness there are no hidden cameras in my house because I may have just yelled a few PG-13 R-rated expletives at the top of my lungs in my living room less than 24 hours after returning home from a Christian writers and speakers conference where I was mostly on my best behavior.

Here is one definition of humility: realizing you sent the unedited version of your book proposal to the publishers who kindly agreed to further consider your book. Luckily, the unintended file was attached to a gracious thank you note. The second thank you note, the one with the correct, edited version of the book proposal attached- the version which my brilliant real life editor friend painstakingly helped me craft- was a bit shorter and included a self-deprecating joke referencing jet lag after a one hour flight. Ha Ha, aren’t I just the silliest?

And I was feeling so fancy. Sigh…

In spite of this latest foible, I am for the most part flying high after my attendance at She Speaks this past weekend. In addition to the exciting opportunity to meet with two publishers, I attended a number of informative and beautifully presented workshops about writing and speaking taught by some of my favorite Christian authors. The quality of the conference was top notch and I gained a multitude of ideas about how I can make my writing and speaking better.

For instance, when you begin with a paragraph which draws your reader in and makes them want to read more, this technique is called A Hook. I have found in the past, dear reader, you particularly enjoy my stories about the times when I do things which scare the dog, thus my willingness to share my epic failure above. You are welcome.

Beyond the high quality training I received, my favorite part of the conference was three days of uninterrupted quality time with my writing sisters. These brave, talented, passionate women flew in from all over the world to learn more about how to spread God’s love and their message of hope. I met new friends and dug deeper with some “old” friends who are part of my online community. We also laughed A LOT. Laughing is my favorite, as you can see in this photo of my squad. Continue reading →

Like this:

Some of the best moments of my life have been marked by the decision to hold hands and pray.

One of the places where I have learned the most about holding hands and praying is The Lamb Center. At The Lamb Center, we hold hands and pray at least six times a day as a community. We pause, we gather, we join hands, and we bow our heads. We talk to God about what has happened so far in our day and what is coming next. We acknowledge how much we need our Heavenly Father and how much we need each other. We say thank you and we ask for help. No fancy words or rituals, just a moment to say We love you too, Lord.

In this community, prayer is a part of the moment-by-moment rhythm of each day, as natural as breathing. If I’m honest, this kind of “praying without ceasing” is a way of living to which I have always aspired personally but have never been able to consistently maintain on my own.

Yesterday, we again held hands and prayed at The Lamb Center. Yesterday’s time of prayer marked an extremely significant milestone in the life of our LC family. Yesterday, after years and years of waiting and hoping, we celebrated our beautiful brand new building with an enormous party. Over 400 people wandered through and took tours of the place God built in answer to thousands of prayers. Community leaders spoke, we cut a red ribbon with giant scissors, and we took hundreds of pictures. It was a day brimming with joy, laughter and gratitude.

Two years ago, we set out to raise 4.5 million dollars to build a more welcoming place of respite for poor and homeless individuals in our community. When the party started yesterday, we were joyfully celebrating the fact God had already provided 4 million towards our goal through the generosity and prayers of his people, an amount beyond our wildest dreams. When the party ended yesterday, Continue reading →